Aust scientists to get Hubble's eye view of meteor storm

Australian scientists have won prime access to United States space technology for tonight's meteor storm.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has beaten 27 international competitors to get free use of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during the 10-hour Leonid meteor shower.

The $10 million dollar an hour telescope is available for use while officials turn it around to protect sensitive equipment from meteorites.

The Leonid storm, or the "Rain of Fire" as it was described by the Greeks and Romans, is expected to arrive today and be visible through to the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Up to 10,000 meteors may burn up in an hour, 90 kilometres

above the earth. It is expected to be the century's most spectacular display of shooting stars.

The Leonid meteors are composed of debris trailing behind the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 33 years. The earth crosses this trail every November.

Because of the position of the earth, the meteor storm will have its greatest impact in the east, peaking over Japan.

NASA is launching its first operational astrobiology mission with an unprecedented investigation of the Leonid meteors.

Damage

Some have predicted the meteor shower could cause significant damage, even knocking satellites out of the sky. Profesor Jeremy Mold from the Australian National University says most of the particles will be about the size of a grain of salt.

He says the risk to orbiting satellites is difficult to predict but the showers will generate a spectacular display for keen star gazers. "The expectation is that it'll be especially good this year because once every 33 years, we enter a part of the comet's orbit which is actually quite close to the trail of the comet," he said.

"That's why the expectation is that this year is the year to see them."

"The peak is predicted to be around 4:00am [AEDT] on Wednesday morning and people who are up that early will see it best by looking north east in the sky," he said.

UNSW's Alberto Fernandez-Soto says his team will study the influence of a quasar - a brilliant object billions of light years away. "Using the light from the quasar, you can analyse the properties of all the galaxies that are between the quasar and us," he said.

"Because the light passes through the halos of the galaxies and that leaves some imprints on the light that you can study.

"For example, there is a galaxy in the middle - you can study what kind of metals it has or how distant it is or how the gas in the galaxy is moving around."

People who sight the Leonid meteor storm over the next couple of days can phone a national hotline and have their reports recorded into Australian history.

The National Meteor Hotline is providing up-to-the-minute information on 1 300 7800 75.